ORNAMENTAL TREE PLANTING. 43 I 



ORNAMENTAL TREE PLANTING. 



FRANK H. NUTTER, MINNEAPOLIS. 



(Presented at meeting of So. Minn. Hort. Society.) 

 Francis Bacon, writing nearly three centuries ago, tells us in 

 an oft quoted passage, as the results of his observation, that "Men 

 come to build stately sooner than to garden finely." In these lat- 

 ter days we are glad to recognize a change and find that there are 

 many exceptions to this rule. This is fortunate, for probably if 

 many of us here present were obliged to first achieve the stately 

 homes the fine gardens would be indefinitely postponed. In fact, 

 many of the most attractive gardens and lawns we see are con- 

 nected with humble homes, the occupants of which often have tru- 

 er tastes and more enthusiasm for nature than those of greater 

 wealth, who entrust the improvement of their grounds to hired 

 gardeners and workmen. 



Still there is much to be done to educate the people up to a 

 true appreciation of the value of "outdoor art," as it is often 

 termed. Many a man will spend thousands of dollars on a house, 

 and a proportionately large sum on the interior furnishings and 

 decorations, and then hesitate to spend one per cent of the total 

 amount in improving and ornamenting the grounds surrounding 

 it. He will gladly, and as a proper business precaution, pay an 

 architect a goodly commission to plan and superintend the building 

 and its interior and then dismiss as an extravagant idea the sug- 

 gestion to employ similar assistance in connection with its grounds. 

 He overlooks the fact that with occupancy and use the deteriora- 

 tion of the house and its contents begins, while without the oppo- 

 site rule holds. In fifteen or twenty years the house, with the best 

 of care, will be an old one, while the gardens and lawns will have 

 arrived at a maturity that will develop their full beauty and more 

 than- anything else help to make the whole in reality that thing 

 which we all desire and aspire to, a home. 



In the opening up of a new country, the so-called practical rather 

 than the ornamental must receive attention. The chilling blasts 

 of winter and the equally disastrous hot winds of summer soon 

 convince the pioneer of the prairie that shelter belts and groves 

 are a necessity. These once established, orcharding and small 

 fruits take the planter's attention, till at last the question of 

 planting for purposes of beauty as well as strict utility is reach- 

 ed. 



The planter in entering on his work should study the special 

 conditions of his particular problem, and as he would hardly be- 



